From his 2008 appointment until he became the focus of an internal audit, CBC president Hubert Lacroix claimed nearly $30,000 in improper expenses, the broadcaster revealed Friday.

“We’ve been reporting a lot on ineligible expense claims by public officials, now we have a story in our own backyard,” CBC reporter Rosemary Barton announced on a Friday broadcast of Power and Politics.

As was revealed by CBC, Mr. Lacroix already receives a $1,500 per month living allowance that he negotiated to cover his frequent travel to Ottawa. Although the capital city is home to CBC’s head office, Mr. Lacroix has continued to live two hours away, in Montreal for the entirety of his six-year presidency.

It was in the midst of these frequent trips that Mr. Lacroix improperly expensed an additional $29,678 for meals, hotels and per diems.

According to an obscure section of the CBC bylaws, these expenses would have been valid if Mr. Lacroix had been shuttling to any other CBC office besides the headquarters — which is why it escaped auditors’ notice for so long.

The CBC reported that the internal audit team that reviewed the expenses said the policy was approved in 2006 but the executives who review presidential expenses weren’t aware of the rule.

It said that a memo from the audit team says CBC executives and managers also said they didn’t know that Mr. Lacroix had negotiated the living allowance to “stay in a regular hotel” instead of moving to Ottawa.

CBC presidents are appointed by the federal cabinet.

Mr. Lacroix repaid the expenses in September when the audit revealed the overpayment.

‘I’ve been preaching transparency since Day One and here I am’

“Is it embarrassing to me, am I upset, am I angry? I’ve been preaching transparency since Day One and here I am in a conversation with you on Power and Politics about my expenses in Ottawa,” Mr. Lacroix said in an awkward Friday interview with Ms. Barton.

He added, “this is what we are doing to ensure that it’s fully transparent and that nobody out there thinks that we are abusing public funds.”

The revelation comes amidst a cash crunch for CBC.

The broadcaster’s federal subsidy was cut by $115-million over three years in 2012, and more recently, it has seen a significant drop in revenue spurred by dropping ratings and the loss of NHL broadcast rights.

In an early February memo to staff, Mr. Lacroix warned of “dark clouds on the horizon.” The same week, the pro-CBC group Friends of Canadian Broadcasting was appearing before a Senate committee to urge a $100-million boost to the broadcaster’s $1- billion-per-year subsidy, arguing that Canadian culture was hanging in the balance.

“There would be no Canadian content in a neo-conservative, let-the-market-decide world,” said group spokesman Ian Morrison, according to iPolitics.ca.

The CBC does not release the salaries of its top executives, but Mr. Lacroix is paid between $358,400 and $421,600 per year.